When thinking of ways to help Haiti in its time of need, many people turn to making donations to the Red Cross or other organizations, but some turn to the arts.
In an attempt to raise funds to benefit Haiti following one of the worst natural disasters to affect the country, the African Activist Association at UCLA is putting on “A Spoken Word and Performance Art Benefit” tonight in the Neuroscience Research Building Auditorium.
All proceeds of the event will go to PSI, an international nonprofit organization that is helping with relief operations on the ground in Port-au-Prince after a 7.0 earthquake struck the island.
The event will feature UCLA students, alumni and various Los Angeles-based talents coming together in an attempt to raise funds and inspire action and further relief efforts here at home.
“Out of this disaster, we are trying to create a positive communal response,” said Cassandra Tesch, a poet and graduate student in African studies.
Tesch, who has worked heavily on coordinating this event and helped bring together the diverse array of performers, will also co-host the event and perform a spoken-word piece.
“We have a great representation of the arts coming together for this, including a variety of different dance, comedy, music, poetry, spoken word, art, guest speakers and everything else,” Tesch said. “We’re trying to put activism and the arts together as much as possible.”
With such an assortment of the arts being represented and contributing to this event, many students wanted to help in any way they could.
Upon hearing about the disaster in Haiti, Kaitlin Huwe, a first-year theater student, felt the desire to take action.
“As a college student, we’re often all struggling to pay for tuition or rent, so it can be hard to know what you can do to help out,” Huwe said. “I asked myself, “˜What can I do, what have I got in my back pocket right now that I can contribute?’ Well, we all have our hearts, and I have my music.”
Huwe will play the guitar as she sings a song that she wrote called, “Interrupted Dances.”
Bobby Gordon, outreach and project coordinator for the UCLA Art | Global Health Center, has already helped by putting on the “Help Haiti” benefit last week, and he will also perform spoken word at tonight’s event.
Gordon, a former Sports editor at the Daily Bruin, will read a piece that he wrote, an open letter to televangelist Rev. Pat Robertson, whose recent comments about the crisis in Haiti have received criticism.
“I was completely shocked by his comments,” Gordon said. “Responding with coldness like he did is the exact opposite of how we should be reacting right now.”
For a community organizer like Gordon, putting on an event like “Help Haiti” and then having the opportunity to contribute to somebody else’s event has been extremely rewarding.
“There’s something else that happens when you go and engage with a group of people that take part together and stand together to do something,” Gordon said. “I believe in the inspirational power of that. I hope people are inspired to do more. I hope this is the beginning for people and not the end.”
The inspirational power of art is especially apparent for poet and alumnus Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, who graduated with a master’s in acting in 2007.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Jean-Baptiste has family in Haiti who are in the middle of experiencing this disaster, and he will be reading poetry that he wrote in dedication to his family members.
“This crisis has hit especially close to home for me,” Jean-Baptiste said. “I wanted to express with my God-given instrument, so I wrote this narrative about what life is like for these people going through this tragedy.”
With so many different styles of art coming together for this event, it will be a testament to the power of human compassion following an event as horrific as the earthquake in Haiti.
“In a time of tragedy, art can be the most essential and beautiful thing around,” Jean-Baptiste said. “We come together, celebrate and contribute, and out of our celebration, people will benefit.”